Why from the targets of course. Where there are targets there is pushing, and teachers getting anxious because with the targets come consequences and league tables. I do not know how you manage to stay so blithely unconcerned, though the linked pdf does highlight how completely disorganised and all over the place the state of play seems to be. Maybe your school is one that somehow manages to get everything completely right. There is also talk of weak teaching and an interesting comment on how boys seemed to lack focus and interest in the sort of activities that were attempted in classrooms.
Here is just one effect of schools trying to meet requirements:
'The introduction of the Foundation Stage Profile has had unintended effects on the age at which children are admitted to school. Some schools were proposing to change their admission arrangements from three to either one or two points in the year to make sure that they were able to complete the Foundation Stage Profile at the required time. The result was that four year olds were starting school earlier than they would otherwise have been.'
'Most teachers sought to develop the early skills of reading, writing and mathematics sensitively, appropriately introducing elements of the literacy hour and daily mathematics lesson as the reception year progressed. However, this was not easy where new pupils were admitted in the summer term: they had to acquire the social skills of settling into a new class alongside pupils who were already familiar with routines; at the same time, they were introduced to the structured approaches of whole class and group work sessions. The skills needed to support learning, such as social skills, perhaps understandably often received less emphasis than the content of the curriculum.'
I find that very interesting.
'In a small number of Year R classes, staff found it difficult to settle some boys into social routines such as listening, concentrating and focusing on a task, as well as taking part in the full range of activities rather than equipment such as the sand tray.'
I find this incredibly sad.
Overall of course, the problems are the predictable results of forcing square pegs into round holes/making students jump through hoops in terms of content of the curriculum that they are not ready for intellectually or emotionally able to engage with -- students who did not meet the targets in reception year progressed to Y1 and teachers pitched lessons at them that they couldn't learn. There are references to less mature students unable to concentrate in Y1 and busy work used to occupy some students while teachers taught others.
' Such behaviour in Year R also affected pupils’ learning in literacy and mathematics; some discussion sessions, for example, were dominated by a few boys or pupils who did not listen to each other. Mathematical learning was weakest where tasks were not matched closely enough to pupils’ needs. This led to disruption, poor concentration and an over-reliance on adult support because pupils were not clear what to do next.
In both Year R and Year 1, whole-class discussions were often too long, lasting up to 30 minutes: many pupils became bored. In Year R, this was partly related to pupils’ limited concentration span and their need for adult support to focus their attention, and partly, too, to their lack of skill in working co-operatively. Often they would become more involved with the lesson again when it was time to work more actively.
In Year 1 the most frequent causes of poor concentration were, similarly, over-long whole-class sessions, poorly organised ‘circle time’ discussions where not every pupil was fully involved and, most frequently, work which was not matched well enough to pupils’ needs. In some classes, teachers did not take enough account of pupils’ individual capabilities – not just in terms of knowledge, but also the extent to which they were able to work independently or needed regular adult support to sustain their involvement.
In both Year R and Year 1, some teachers used mixed-sex pairs of pupils, working together often on computer-based tasks. This was only partly successful: too often the boy used the keyboard whilst the girl watched or, frequently, provided the answers for the boy to type in.'
Tasks? On the computer?
What is being described is chaos.
Mrz, I recommend you take a look again at the link I provided to the day in the life of a Swedish day care facility where children up to 6 are taken care of. I promise you you will see huge differences between that and this description by OFSTED of some schools in Britain.
dera.ioe.ac.uk/4822/1/Transition%20from%20the%20Reception%20Year%20to%20Year%201_an%20evaluation%20by%20HMI%20%28PDF%20format%29.pdf
And all of this hurrying towards literacy and arithmetic (in the manner of cats being herded) is being done two and three years before students in Scandinavia start formal school.